[The words of Brand, to Agnes:]
Who’s doomed by God’s just law?
Oh do not seek to know!
Enough that you understand
‘Be faithful and endure’
written by his own hand
in letters of fire.
To those who, striving, fall
God will be merciful.
Those who refuse to strive
He will not forgive.
Agnes, in my book
the first commandment says,
‘You shall not compromise’.
Half-done, ill-done work
thwarting the soul’s power,
dooms the ill-doer.